Splawn Amps are hand made and hand wired by Scott Splawn one at time. Scott started out modding Marshall amps before building his own line and continues to mod Marshalls today as well. The various models and specs can be found in the following pages. Each amp is made to order in just about any color/trim/headshell design combination listed below. Scott uses only the finest materials and hardware. You can tell just by picking it up how well it is made.

I requested permission before creating this thread and using pics from Splawn web site.

August/September 2002http://www.musicianshotline.com/arc...od_marshall.htm
"Hello tone freaks! I am Scott Splawn of Splawn Guitars. Let's talk about taking that plexi reissue that you may have picked up at a bargain and turn it in to one of your most favorite stage amps. That sweet ole classic will walk the dog with a trip to my shop and one of my modifications. Most guys are sticking some sort of overdrive pedal in the front end, using a variac to lower the voltage and an attenuator to control the volume of that loud rascal. With the Splawn mod you can achieve the classic brown sound without any of these devices. What we do is rewire the pre-amp to an all tube, four gain stage, high headroom, low noise design, loaded with rich
harmonics and sustain. No solid-state diode clipping circuit in this baby. We tailor each stage to work through out the pre-amp to achieve the desired tone. The amp will have a footswitch able rhythm channel that has the classic tone with more muscle; the lead channel pumps the amp up on steroids to achieve all those hair raising pinch harmonics with ease. We also add a footswitch able solo volume control, {placed on the front panel} to get you over the mix when it's time for your lead work. This mod has taken years of tweaking to get it dialed in for the maximum Plexi-Drive tone. If you are interested, or have any questions in having this mod
performed on your re-issue, please feel free to contact us directly at www.splawnguitars.com."

Scott sings and plays guitar in an acoustic band called 3OP.http://www.3opmusic.com/Bio.asp
"One Cool Thing About 3OP - I make really loud amps for a living. Some huge bands are playing them now. Yet somehow I'm in an acoustic band."

Mission Statement

At Splawn Amplification, we are committed to the highest customer service standards and product reliability, due to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The way we handle day to day business revolves around this relationship. We give all the honor and glory back to the One who is fully responsible. If you have any questions or comments about this mission statement, please feel free to contact us.

Contact Us

Splawn Amplification
115 South Gaston St.
Dallas, NC 28034

For product information or general
questions please email us scott@splawnguitars.com
Sometimes emails do not get to us so if
you do not hear back from us please call
704-922-0020

(Scott Splawn no longer modifies Marshalls. They are seen however in used gear posts.)

Update as of 12/13/11:

Scott is not longer building the Oversized cabs.
Warehouseguitarspeakers.com has also been commissioned to build speakers for Scott.
A small form factor 'Mini' head is in the works.
There is a rumor of a Nitro/Quick Rod type amp called the 'Eliminator'

Update as of 04/26/12

Scott is also now sourcing Classic Tone trannies in addition to Heyboer.

Update 04/27/12: New Super Sport

Fresh off the Splawn forum:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ayton(e)

The specs from Brian:

Introducing the new Splawn Super Sport 1X12 35w. Combo amp! Comes with dual channel,shared EQ,FX loop,Foot switchable overdrive boost, clean channel is like a fender circuit, and the overdrive is like a stock Plexi. Vintage 30 Celestion, weighs 45lbs, dimensions are—
price—$1650.00
Never thought I'd see the day a Splawn came with a stock V30.

Correct dude! In the pic with all 3 Splawns The "Destroyer" Lo Sag is centered, yes I dubbed it that Heres a close up and Splawn did a FIRST of Black Gator front and back panel never before done by Splawn, I wanted a GATOR-STYLE front face JCM800 style concept, and I sent Scott the Gator lol!! Brian who handles the cosemetic tolexing is a genious and the Splawn amps are basically like buying your own Customshop masterpiece!

The Quick Rod uses EL34s, which is a sound that most of us are very familiar with. For a standard mids-rich Marshall-esque rock sound, the Quick Rod is the way to go. The Quick Rod is rated at 100w, though measurements taken by Clarry proved the 100w rating to be rather conservative.

The Pro Mod uses KT88s, which increases the output, and also adds more top-end and bottom-end. The KT88s make the amp louder, and more aggressive. The Pro Mod is rated at 120w not going to post here what the max output Clarry measured on this one was, but the figure was enough to make him utter an expletive.

Half-Power Switch: Not a pentode/triode switch, but a more classic arrangement of simply cutting out 2 power valves, which is a very effective way of slightly reducing the volume and aggression, and increasing your ability to wind the power section up.

Switch a 3-notch click switch on the front panel which selects 3. Gear 1 is modded-Plexis¯, which is very convincing less gain and bottom-end, more of the classic upper-mids and a nice top-end bite. Gear 2 is my favourite classic JCM800 with smoother gain and thick, sustaining chords. Gear 3 is hot-rodded JCM800 territory, with more gain and bite on the top-end, still retaining full definition. Even at max gain settings, the gain never gets over the top. Scott Splawn is a guitarist himself and knows that a lot of modern high-gain amps have gain controls that get pretty unusable when turned up over halfway not so with the Splawns

Having tried modified Marshalls (Voodoo etc) and other amps based on the JCM800 (Bogner Ecstasy, Roccaforte HG100 etc), I can honestly say that Scott Splawn builds some of the finest amps in this style ever!

To put it succinctly, these amps are where Marshall should have gone after the JCM800 series.

The sheer power and volume of these amps is amazing anyone who's ever cranked the power section of a JCM800 2203 will know what I mean. That massive power section makes everything tight and articulate, no matter how much gain you're using.
Case in point: last night, while demoing the amp to a friend, suddenly the amp cutout we checked the connections everywhere, to discover that the palm-muted powerchords he had been playing had actually blown the speaker lead right out of the back of the Matamp 4x12 cabinet!

Where Splawns own sound comes into play is the preamp section. Smooth and almost liquid¯, with incredible sustain, and yet no sign of the buzzy, raspy gain that many high-gain amps exhibit. When you combine this with the classic JCM800-style poweramp section, it's absolutely amazing: clear, tight and defined, with great sustain and chord definition. No ugly frequencies or buzzy preamp gain, just a perfect interaction between the pre and power stages.

MatrixClaw on Comp vs Super Comp

I haven't tried either one of those Splawns, but I wish I still had my Nitro. I'm assuming you just like single channel amps? If I base my opinions on both off of the Quickrod and Nitro, the Super Comp is going to have a bigger, tight, lowend for metal and have a lot of low mids; to be honest, I never really played around with mine for anything other than cleans and high gain, so I have no idea how it sounds on mid-low gain. The Pro Mod is going to be brighter sounding with more high mids and more of a cutting lead tone than a smooth lead tone, a little less gain and voiced a little more vintagey. I really don't know how they'll react as far as clean tones go as they are only single channel, but the Nitro has much better cleans than the Quickrod.

REVIEWS - Comparison to EVH 5153 head as I was wondering

MatrixClaw on Quickrod vs Nitro vs 5153
Well, I've never played a Quickrod and it's been a while since I've tried the 5153, but going off of what I've heard and what I remember, the Quickrod's clean channel isn't as good as the Nitro's and the 5153 is much more of a lead amp.

You can coax rhythms out of the 5153, but they're not going to sound anywhere as aggressive as either of the Splawns will.

The Nitro, imo, had as good of cleans as the 5153 does, and it had the ability to be aggressive or smooth for leads and rhythms. I really never tried it for anything other than cleans and hard rock/metal though, so I can't really comment on its versatility, but I did use it with my Strat which had single coils and it could still pull off metal tones.

If I had the option again, I would definitely take the Nitro over the 5153.
Derek

----
Eroc503

hey bro, haven't played a 5150III, only heard clips. Supposedly a good sounding amp, but like you said, doesn't hold a candle to Splawn build quality. Just comparing clips I've heard of it, doesn't have the low mid thump of the nitro, and doesn't have the upper mid growl of the QR. I think they do their niche better, but it depends what you want. I think the 5150III is more versatile than either Splawn head. sounds like it can cover much more ground.

Have you played the 5150III yet? Just from what I hear in clips, it sounds more voiced around the mids and upper mids. The Quickrod was like that for me, the Nitro was the only one that really could nail a modern metal tone IMO. I was using a 7 string though too, so that may affect what they can do.

I like both heads better than the Nitro for rock tones and mid snarl however. What are you mainly looking for?

-------------------------

Mesa Explorer

The quickrod is very similar to the 5153. I would say they both share the early Van Halen tone, the 5153 doing it a little better, however, the quickrod does have a more layered harmonic range, while the 5153 can just sound thicker.

I'd say if you were playing more classic rock the quickrod on gears 1 and 2 does a better plexi type drive than the 5153, but on gear 3 it's a bit more modern than the 5153 but without as much bass.

As far as build quality goes, it's going to be quickrod all the way. Retaining value, again, the quickrod.

Playing at bedroom volumes...this can be tricky. With the volume all the way down it still has a little volume to it. Not too much but, more than I can use with my room right under my parents room at night. You can buy yellow-jackets and run it on the 50watt mode and basically have an 18 watter.

I prefer the sound of the Quickrod with a Strat and Les Paul, but nothing too modern. Just takes away from the vintage feel it has.

Roughly, I would say if you're going for Van Halen from the pre-section, Tool, Alternative, or 90's metal, extreme clarity and dynamics the 5153

For AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen from the power section, extremely full, unforgiving, best lead guitar amp in the world, the quickrod.

--------------------------
****** on Quickrod
I also have a splawn modded marshall 1087x plexi. It does most of the same tones & it is cool looking in the small head shell. I needed to get rid of something . Splawn build quality is awesome & cust service is great. I just picked up a marshall 50 watt jvm. I like the tone a lot. It can get a little more modern & it has a ton of gain. It sounds more like a marshall. The splawn sounds close to marshall but it has its own voicing for sure. It has this angry sound coming from the upper mids that is a little different. The marshall has a more sweet bark in the mids instead of an angry snarl, if that makes any sense. The splawn is also very tight. It does not have a ton of gain but it is all clear and articulate. Not much saturation at all. I like the voicing of the jvm better but you need to keep the gain lower. The splawn clips on you tube sound great, but the jvm clips that I have heard suck. Try to play a QR and bring a od pedal too. The amp sounds good at noon on all controls. This amp is very picky about speakers, it sounds like ass with V30's. It sounds good thrue a marshall cab with g12 75's imo... Good luck , -----------------------
friend*

Yes, Scott builds some amazing amps. You can feel it when it comes out of the box and finally connects with your guitar.

I've pinged Derek, Eric, and MesaEx to see if they would get in here and offer up pics/clips/reviews

I'm still a nub when it comes to Splawn as I just got it. If anyone else has one or has a question about them please speak up.

glad you guys like it so far.......

311's

MatrixClaw

(for those that don't know when MatrixClaw got his Splawn Nitro he was banned so I had to do his NAD for him ....how gay is that? He doesn't have his Nitro anymore but this is the man responsible for my splawn gas.

Question...
So can splawn handle High gain music? Let's say bands like Chimaira, As blood runs black, Machine head, Born of Osiris etc.
But without the use of an OD. So the tone comes primarily from the amp?

Just a question i'm wondering because i can't seem to find anything about them playing modern metal/hardcore. If so, which would you suggest?

Question...
So can splawn handle High gain music? Let's say bands like Chimaira, As blood runs black, Machine head, Born of Osiris etc.
But without the use of an OD. So the tone comes primarily from the amp?

Just a question i'm wondering because i can't seem to find anything about them playing modern metal/hardcore. If so, which would you suggest?

You tell me

__________________None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.